Another ex-Texan, Regine Basha curated this intriguing exhibition of works made as theoretical gifts for the late Sol LeWitt. Opening on January 20, 2011 at Cabinet and January 22 at Mass MoCA, “An Exchange with Sol LeWitt” was inspired by LeWitt’s lifelong practice of exchanging art with everyone from his peers to amateurs and admirers.

For LeWitt, the act of exchange seemed to be not only a personal gesture, but also an integral part of his conceptual practice. In addition to encouraging the circulation of artworks through a gift economy that challenged the art world’s dominant economic model, LeWitt’s exchanges with strangers have the same qualities of generosity, and risk, that characterized his work in general. This kind of exchange was designed to stage an encounter between two minds, outside the familiar confines of friendship. – Regine Basha

Over the summer, Basha created an open call for artists to contribute works in any medium for this exhibition, which coincides with Mass MoCA’s “LeWitt Wall Drawing Retrospective.” Lookin’ good, Regine!

Paul Ramirez Jonas, Boarding Pass, 2010 (Courtesy Cabinet)

Yesterday I received a curious message from artist Lee Walton.

“At this very moment, a man is locked up to a park bench at Union Square Park in San Francisco. To unlock him, find the woman in the red scarf at the Atlas Cafe in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She is the only one who has the combination to the lock. She will give it to you. Can you find a way to set this man free? He is hungry and wants to go home.” Read the rest of this post on Indirect Collaboration: Collective Creativity on the Web.

The Temporary Space opens Jan 15

I just received word from a former student, Keijiro Suzuki, that he and others are launching a new artist-run space in Houston called “The Temporary Space.” According to the website, every six months a new group of artists-in-residence will develop projects and exhibitions for the space. “The Temporary Space aims to create and share critically engaging experiences such as contemporary art exhibitions, experimental music performances, critical visual critiques and publicly engaging projects as basic components. In addition to this, focusing on interdisciplinary practices, the temporary space explores different topics and subjects by research and experiment, as well as by dialogues and discussions.”

Visit The Temporary Space, 1320 Nance, Houston, TX, 77002 by appointment.
Contact Keijiro Suzuki, cell: 832-867-9207, manager@thetemporaryspace.com

Andrea Grover is offering a class at
University of Houston, School of Art this Fall

Intermedia Course:
Participation Art: From Social Sculpture to Distributed Creativity

What was it about the social climate of the 1960s that gave way to group-participation, happenings and actions? And can today’s networked communication give the crowd even greater creative agency? This course looks at the history of participation art from the 1960s to present, and examines the social and technological trends that have ignited a new genre of democratic art-making–incorporating ten to ten-thousand participants in the creative process. Students will become familiar with seminal participatory art works of the last 40 years, read critical texts on Social Sculpture, Distributed Creativity, Gift Economies, and Relational Aesthetics, and finally, collectively create a new “crowdsourced” work of art. Course #: Art 4397 / Section #15735 or Art 6397/ Section # 3344. Visit www.uh.edu for enrollment info!

Image: Ant Farm, 50×50′ Pillow, 1969